Effect of iron and silver nanoparticles on coenzyme Q(10) production by Gluconobacter japonicus FM10

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Coenzyme Q(10) is an anti-aging agent whose demand is increasing progressively. There are various strategies used for increasing coenzyme Q(10) production by microorganisms. In this study, for the first time, we investigated the effect of iron oxide and silver nanoparticles on coenzyme Q(10) production by Gluconobacter japonicus FM10. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the first step, a preliminary experiment was set and carried out to obtain the minimum inhibitory concentrations of the nanoparticles on the strain FM10. Then the sub-MIC concentrations were used to investigate their effect on coenzyme Q(10) production in the stationary and exponential phases of the growth, separately. RESULTS: The results showed that coenzyme Q(10) production increased in the presence of the iron oxide and silver nanoparticles. The silver nanoparticles induced 1.9 times higher coenzyme Q(10) production. The highest level of coenzyme Q(10) was induced when the silver nanoparticles were added to the culture medium at the stationary phase. CONCLUSION: This should be noticed that so far nanoparticles have been considered as antibacterial agents, rather than being considered to cause probable beneficial effects on the induction of useful products in the microbial world. In this regard, their potential for increasing coenzyme Q(10) production has received no attention. However, our present results showed that the nanoparticles can be used to increase the production efficiency of coenzyme Q(10) in Gluconobacter.